Coil Questions

Scott,I just bought this one from Skip White.Its a 50K,but I figured its fine for my stock motor.Haven't put it in yet,gonna get some wires & do it all at once.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370381074998&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT
but if you read on the install instructions on their 65K,it says remove ballast resistor.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/CHEVY-INLINE-6-CYL-230-250-292-HEI-DISTRIBUTOR-6523-R-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem51917c4a5bQQitemZ350333192795QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories
Hope this helps some.

The Govenor is always right!!! lol
B.W.

I was reading on the first one that is for a points system only.Seems as if its just a firewall mounted version of a stock coil.Dont think its got enough 'ummmph' in it.

I ,m with Donivan on this one. The 2nd gen HEI was dynomite and used many years. It is a good hot ignition system as it is , from what I can remember from my tune up days, I think they are stock around 43K volts, 8mm silcon jacket wires, and you will not likely need anything hotter unless your engine has higher compresion (10.5:1 and up). The original points and condensor ignition was around 12K to 22K volts. The larger circle of the HEI cap is to make greater distance between the pins because of the higher voltage.

There is lots of aftermarket stuff availible for making your HEI more HP. In my opinion most of it is BS, and even more of it made off shore is absolute crap. I have tuned thousands of vehicle in the HEI era using an osilascope, and although biger coils and all made more power it was rarely ever needed. I have seen much cheep ass off shore parts reduce the advantages of the HEI system. Everything about the HEI ignitionsystem is about as good as it gets for close to stock engines. The only thing I recomend for the HEI is a quality cap and rotor (with brass terminals). Fumes migrate up through the shaft of all distributers, and corosive moisture in the "ionised, mostly ozone atmosphear inside the cap condenses on the terminals and the alluminum terminals just go away under the chemical and electrical loads. You need brass terminals and make sure the shaft and bearings are not worn out.

By the way, all you guys running the HEI ignition will get a smoother and more eficiently running engine if you set your plug gap at not less then .045". If you have a cylinder thats a little lower on compresion, try widening the gap on just that cylinder about .005" more then the others, it shopuld smoothen out the running.

My engine is a 9.3:1 compresion, the stock 36K is plenty but I like to run the mixture as lean as posible (without detonation) so I have to widen the plug gap to around .050 or .060 to eliminate "lean missfire" (ESPECIALLY AT MAX rpm). So even thought my 1988 distributer is smaller diameter then your HEI I will be going with a 48K volt coil because of the wider plug gap.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/MSD-8226/

Hey Scott, what is your compresion ratio going to be with the 30 over holes?

M1D

Ya what Don said

It is to late to determine the compresion ratio physically but if you know the combustion chamber CC of the head and the crank throw and the bore diameter you can math it up.

But like Don is saying you really need to just get it running and do a test after a few hundred miles and brake in. If it runs on regular without pinging (and the timing is set resonable) then you don't need HP coil. I think the factory HEI equipment will be plenty.
M1D

i bought my hei off flebay, all brand new single wire drop in and go was 119.00 from gr8hotrods 50k coil purdy red cap and brass terminals. i had a bad vac advance and they shipped me another one pronto works great. oh also has lifetime warranty, dunno whos lifetime but its got it.
jeff